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MSNBC host Joe Scarborough suggested that some liberal media figures blasting President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C. were not being entirely honest about their concerns over crime in the nation’s capital, on Tuesday’s “Morning Joe.”
Scarborough said he found it “interesting” that some reporters critically covering the Trump takeover have privately expressed concerns about their own safety.
“This is interesting,” Scarborough said. “I actually heard from a reporter when this happened, going, ‘Well, you know, if he doesn’t overreach, this could actually be a good thing for quality of life,’ etc, because in DC right now, I had this happen to my family and I had that, and they go down the list. And then I saw him tweet something completely different.”
Scarborough, who said he’s lived in D.C. for more than three decades, added that crime isn’t as bad as it was two or three years ago, but it still was not a safe city. “It’s certainly not as safe as the nation’s capital should be.”
WASHINGTON POST SOURCE SAYS DC IS SAFE BUT STAYS ANONYMOUS OVER ‘PERSONAL SAFETY’ CONCERNS
Trump announced Monday that he would place the city’s police department under direct federal control and deploy National Guard troops to “reestablish law, order and public safety.”
Top Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, criticized the move as unnecessary, pointing to a reported decline in homicides. Liberal media personalities such as CNN’s Dana Bash and NBC’s Jonathan Allen argued that the most violent day in recent D.C. history was January 6, 2021, during the Capitol riot.
During the “Morning Joe” segment, MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend pushed back, saying she has lived in D.C. for the past decade and believes rising crime fears are largely about perception, not reality.
“The way I’ve heard DC being described this morning, is like it’s a city under siege. Like it’s a dangerous place, clutching your pearls, got to keep your bag under your dress when you leave the house and that is just not true,” she argued, while acknowledging “instances of juvenile crime.” She argued that more police on the streets would not address the root causes of juvenile crime and accused Trump of amplifying public fears.
TOP DEMOCRATS RIPPED ON SOCIAL MEDIA OVER ‘BONKERS’ REACTIONS TO TRUMP’S DC CRIME PLAN: ‘MASSIVE LIAR’
“We need to rethink what makes cities safe in America,” she added.
Scarborough countered that even lifelong Democrats are worried about their safety in Washington. He read a message from a liberal resident who refused to walk outside past 8 p.m. and whose friends had been carjacked or shot at, calling it “a change from a decade ago.”
“I guarantee you that’s a person that has never voted for a Republican in their life,” Scarborough said. “This isn’t imagined. People you know, that I know, that they love, they and their friends don’t feel safe in Washington, D.C.”
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During a press conference on Monday, Trump challenged liberal journalists to be honest about crime concerns in the city.
“I understand a lot of you tend to be on the liberal side, but you don’t want to get — you don’t want to get mugged and raped and shot and killed,” Trump said. “And you all know people and friends of yours that that happened. And so you can be anything you want, but you want to have safety in the streets. You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something. And you don’t have that now.”
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